


Parallel

by KivaEmber



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, M/M, Role Reversal, Slash, eventual pairing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-19
Updated: 2012-12-09
Packaged: 2017-11-19 01:35:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/567560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KivaEmber/pseuds/KivaEmber
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Role Reversal AU. Yamato, a very cold, apathetic genius is forced to join forces with two classmates to survive in the chaos of the demon infested Tokyo. Meanwhile the charismatic and mysterious leader of JP’s, Chief Kageyama, tries to keep everything under control…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alliance

_“…I have been waiting for you. Welcome to Nicaea, your home for images of death. My name is Tico, and I will be your curator. It is an honour to meet you.”_

Yamato watched the screen of his phone with detached curiosity at the little sprite, tuning out the quiet babble of the train’s platform. It wasn’t rush hour yet, so thankfully the train platform wasn’t crowded, or even had that many people there. He saw one or two school uniforms similar to his own milling about, but most of the students were still shopping about in celebration for the end of exams.

Someone brushed past him, and Yamato turned his head to glower at the back of some yellow, scarf-wearing student. He quickly lost interest and turned back to his phone.

Tico, the male butler looking sprite, gave a small bow.

_“On this website, those you are bonded to by fate… meaning those you not only encounter, but become deeply connected to in the future… This website will reveal to you how and under what circumstances they die.”_

Yamato raised an eyebrow. So the rumours were true. He hardly listened to the idiotic babbling of the mediocre student body, but this had sounded so outlandish he had to check it out for himself. Images of Death… surely this is just some morbid joke of a programmer with too much time on their hands?

 _“The manner of their passing will be reported to you as a movie clip viewable onsite. We will notify you when new clips are uploaded. Please have patience until then. Now then,”_  Tico’s voice came out distorted, in a way that made a shiver crawl down Yamato’s spine,  _“haVE a nICE daY…”_

Yamato snapped his phone shut, letting out a soft scoff. A horror gimmick. Yamato had to give props to whoever made it; they truly went the extra mile with the website navigators and edited video clips. It wasn’t as if Yamato had anyone to be informed of anyway.

He didn’t care about anyone. Didn’t have anyone. He preferred it that way.

Yamato stuffed his phone into his school jacket’s pocket, and lifted his hands up to slip his headphones back on. They were a plain, dark colour, but he had learned early on in life that if you appeared busy, or blocked everyone out with them (he didn’t care about music either), people were less likely to bother you.

Well, usually.

“U-Um, excuse me…”

Yamato paused, and let his headphones drop back to where they rested around his neck, turning his head to see a shy looking girl glancing at him. She looked slightly familiar, and Yamato frowned in thought. Oh. Right. Io Nitta from Class C. She was a reasonably intelligent young girl, but was incredibly weak-willed and meek. It was a waste.

“What,” Yamato asked flatly, slipping one hand into his pocket.

Nitta looked a bit uncertain on how to proceed in the face of Yamato’s unfriendly response, but to her credit, she mustered herself valiantly. “Um, sorry for bothering you. I just noticed that you were wearing my school’s uniform…”

Yamato stared at her. Well, no shit. So what?

Nitta shrank back a little, but still didn’t go away as he had hoped. Hm, guess she did have a bit of a spine after all. “S-So, um, are you just getting back from the exams? I came a little late, so I’m wondering if everyone was still there.”

Yamato considered simply ignoring her, but decided that if he answered her question, she would probably go away faster. “There are some afternoon tests, so anyone applying for public universities should be there. Is that all?”

“Um…”

An aggravated sigh. “You will get questions later.”

Nitta blinked at him, looking genuinely surprised. “Huh…? That’s amazing. How did you know I wanted the sample questions…? U-Um, but yeah…” she stammered when Yamato narrowed his eyes dangerously. “T-Thank you. I didn’t mean to-”

“Hey! Um, Io, right?”

Yamato closed his eyes in suffering as the yellow scarf wearing student who nearly bumped into him earlier rushed over to them. He opened them again to see Nitta looking at the newcomer nervously, and the other boy, with messy brown hair and somewhat disorganised appearance, was looking more than a little flustered, holding out his hand.

“I, uh, saw you drop this a moment ago. I didn’t look at it or anything! Ehehe…”

In the boy’s hand was a mobile phone. Nitta made a shocked noise and she quickly took it, her cheeks a faint red.

“O-Oh! Thank you! I can’t believe I almost dropped this…” Nitta was looking a bit awkward at this point, and the other student rubbed the back of his neck.

“No problem! So um, well…errr…”

Yamato, not wanting anything to do with what was quickly devolving into awkward teenage flirting, pivoted on his heel to walk away to a more isolated corner when his phone vibrated angrily in his pocket. He paused, slipping it out into his hand, and heard Nitta and the other boy make similar puzzled noises.

“Huh? Did we all get one?” The boy’s voice asked, and Yamato turned his head to see the brunet staring at him with a mix of wary curiosity. “That’s kind of freaky.”

The boy looked down at his phone then, and he blinked in surprise. “Oh…Nicaea? Is this going to be one of those death clips?”

Nicaea? A clip already?

Yamato turned his attention back onto his phone, flipping it open and tapping the email notification. He heard Nitta mutter softly to herself, her tone disturbed.

“What is this…? Creepy…?”

“H-Hey…um, you’re…Yamato right?” the boy asked him suddenly. Yamato glanced at him, and the boy was looking a bit pale, his eyebrows drawn together as his gaze remained fixated on the screen of his phone.

“Uh…” the boy held out his phone for Yamato to see. “This is you, right…?”

Yamato took the phone, and stared as the clip played before his eyes. In the chaotic filming of it, he recognised the train platform and- the train crashed, derailing straight into the very platform they were currently standing on and-

What…

 _What_ …?

Yamato stared at his own corpse on the screen, half crushed under one of the train’s carriages, blood splattered everywhere and- he felt disturbed despite himself. How could this be? How could they make such a realistic video – better question, how did they know how he looked like? Yamato could blame this on special effects but, he only recently signed up for this site only minutes prior, and he certainly didn’t upload any pictures of himself for it so- so-

_How did they do this?!_

“Pretty slick,” the boy was saying, and he took his phone back from Yamato’s numb fingers. “I thought the death clips would be more chintzy-looking.”

“…I think you’re in this too,” Nitta murmured quietly.

“Huh?” the boy looked perturbed. “Who? Me? Ugh, seriously? This is way too elaborate for a prank…”

Yamato was inclined to agree. He tightened his grip around his phone, quickly deleting the email he got from Nicaea. This was too – disturbing. Perhaps he should get the bus home instead, as much as he loathed that mode of transportation more than taking the train. He knew he was being ridiculous – superstition and predicting the future did not exist. No doubt this was some…very morbid programmer who, somehow knew how he looked like, wanted to gross out a couple of overly curious students.

Still. His instincts were prickling. Get out of the station. Get out of the station.

Yamato went to turn away to hurry towards the stairs leading up into the street, but a jingle sounded out through the platform. Yamato felt the bottom of his stomach drop.

“Oh, the train’s here,” the boy said, sounding completely unconcerned. Idiot idiot idiot- “Let’s see…”

There was a horrible crashing noise, and Yamato was almost thrown to the ground when the very earth rocked beneath their feet. Screams and shouts filled the platform, and his entire world was filled with the sound of screeching and buckling metal and the deep roar of an earthquake. He heard the boy and Nitta shout in fear, and-

The train-

The three of them had been knocked to the ground at this point, and Yamato looked up slowly when the roaring noise stopped, the bent and twisted train carriage looming over them in the sudden stillness. He had been crushed in the clip. But no. Maybe the forces that caused the train to buckle would make it stay in place-

_Stayinplacestayinplacestayinplace-_

The train started to groan and it tilted towards them, and Yamato was frozen in place, he couldn’t move get up run what are you doing the train was moving it was moving it was leaning down and groaning and oh god he was going to die I’m going to die oh go-

With the scream the train rushed down towards him.

 

* * *

 

_“Do you want to live?”_

_yesyesletmeliveidon’twanttodie_

_“You have a strong will.”_

_thisisn’tstrengthjustbasichumanselfpreservation_

_“You are shining brilliantly, Yamato Hotsuin…”_

_waitwhois_

_“You should wake up now. Good luck.”_

_wai_

* * *

 

Awareness came to Yamato slowly. The air was dry with dust, and he coughed as he slowly pushed himself up from the floor, every inch of him sore and aching, and the side of his face throbbing painfully. What had- what…?

“Phew! I’m in the human world! That train sure was heavy!”

The voice was childlike and chirpy, and for a moment Yamato was utterly confused. Train? Human world? What? He lifted his head, his vision slightly blurry, and stared at the bizarre, squat orange creature before him. It turned towards him, its mouth stretched wide in a great, stupid looking grin, sharp teeth bared.

“I’m called Obariyon!” the creature said energetically. “Don’t go dying yet! I’m supposed to kill you.”

What?

“Kill me…?”

“Ugh…” the groan came from Yamato’s left, and he groggily turned his gaze over to where the scarf wearing boy from earlier was slowly pushing himself up onto his hands and knees. “Oh…oh whoaaaaa! What the hell is that?!”

“Mm…” That was Nitta, and Yamato’s head felt like it was spinning as he went to look to his right. The side of his head was really pounding at that moment, and he lifted a hand to his temple, feeling something warm and wet against his fingers. Was he bleeding?

“…!  _AHHHHHHHHHHHHH_!”

The scream almost made Yamato leap to the ceiling, and the next thing he knew Nitta had scurried behind him with the speed of a startled crab, clutching tightly to the back of his jacket. He was so stunned he couldn’t muster the energy to shove her away.

“Yeah!” The creature – Obariyon – cheered, leaping up briefly into the air to punch towards the ceiling. “That’s the spirit! The timing couldn’t be better! I’ll battle you all at once!”

What was going on? Yamato felt like he had stepped into a bizarre television programme. Nitta was breathing quickly behind his back, and the boy was staring at the creature with his eyes so wide it was a miracle they didn’t pop out of his skull. He was so overwhelmed and confused he could only sit there and stare stupidly at Obariyon.

“S-Shit! Let’s run!” the boy stammered, quickly pushing himself to his feet. The boy didn’t run and leave the disorientated Yamato and terrified Nitta to their fates, however. He rushed over to Yamato, grabbed him by the upper arm and hauled him up, while doing the same with Nitta, and started pulling them over to the stairs. Yamato almost stumbled once or twice, but managed to keep up with the boy as they ran-

Bursts of energy flared just before the stairs, and they all skidded to a halt. More fantastical creatures hovered before them, and the boy pushed them both back, his arms spread out wide as if trying to shield them, even as his knees were trembling so badly they were practically knocking together.

“S-S-Seriously?! There are monsters in front of us and behind us..?!”

“What…what should we do? Like this…” Nitta whispered, her voice trembling.

Yamato turned his head to where Obariyon was merrily skipping over to them, and the childishly stupid grin it was sporting was leaning more towards sinister territory. The monsters by the stairs moved forwards –and they all took a step back – and Obariyon skipped closer, and soon all three of them were huddled together like terrified, cornered animals.

Cornered animals?

It was possibly the concussion talking, but Yamato was  _not_  going to die such a ridiculous death! His, his death clip aid he would die beneath the train, and he didn’t! He dodged that fate and – he didn’t want to die, so he won’t! He will  _survive_ , even if he had to fight these bizarre creatures to do so! He dodged his fate once, and he’ll do so again!

“Let’s fight,” Yamato said lowly, and he felt Nitta and the boy’s incredulous stares.

“…What?! Are you serious?! You want us to fight them?” the boy stammered.

Yamato went to snap at them that they really didn’t have a choice, but one of the monsters, a small, pudgy pale thing, interrupted them with a bloodthirsty, impatient voice; “Die already! I’ve got other stuff to get back to!”

The small green thing darted forwards, and the boy bolted back enough that he almost bowled Yamato over – all three of them tried to scatter back, but the green monster was more intent upon the brunet.

“What the hell?! Don’t come near me! Don’t!” the boy wailed, lifting his arms up to shield his head and cowering away from the approaching monster. The green monster moved its pudgy arms, and a strong gust of wind howled out nowhere, whipping violently at the boy. The brunet yelped in pain when it forced him down on the ground, his back striking the cracked platform with a solid sounding thump, but the boy looked otherwise unharmed.

“Gosh! You’re persistent! Hurry up and die! I’m busy!”

“I-I-I’m not gonna die!” the boy hiccupped, quickly scrambling backwards when the green monster advanced upon him. “I don’t want to!”

“Hee~ that’s pretty good, for a human,” a chirpy, female voice crooned, and Yamato and Nitta turned to see the other monster, a small, pretty looking fairy flutter over to them. Her smile looked malicious, and she lifted up her hands, energy crackling on her palms. “But can you defeat me?”

Nitta cried out when electricity crashed down upon her, barely managing to escape by jumping backwards, and Yamato himself was forced to step back from the hot, painful bolts. A cheery voice chirped behind him, and he spun wildly – only to stagger when the sharp movement made his head throb in pain, one hand lifting up to press against his bloodied temple.

“I’ll chase you wherever you go,” Obariyon said, its mouth opened wide and sharp teeth gleaming. “If I beat you, I get to go free.”

This was happening too fast.  ** _What_**   _was happening_?! The boy was crying out as the green monster chased after him, gusts of wind howling through the ruined platform, and the air was thick with ozone as the fairy cast bolts of electricity down upon a screaming Nitta and the orange creature was lunging forwards and-

No. No no no he wasn’t going to die!

Yamato reacted on panicked instinct. As the squat, orange creature leapt at him, its thick hands reaching out as if intending to rip off one of his limbs, Yamato kicked out at it. His foot connected with it bulbous head, and the Obariyon let out a wailing noise when it packed enough force to send it flying backwards instead.

Yamato staggered as he tried to regain his balance, standing there with a bewildered look on his face, his phone still clutched tightly in his hands (he was still holding onto it?). That actually worked?

“Urff!” Obariyon leapt back to its feet, shaking its head. “Huh! Your life against my freedom? What’s more important? FREEDOM!”

The creature lunged at him with more viciousness this time, and Yamato darted to the side – running right into the brunet in the process. They both fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs, Yamato’s elbow accidentally driving into the boy’s solar plexus, and they both struggled to climb to their feet.

“Haha! Got you now!” the green monster said gleefully, lifting its pudgy hands – the air beginning to ripple from the energy – and Obariyon’s laughter cackled from the side, loud and grating.

The boy beneath Yamato let out a terrified cry. “Waaaah! We’re surrounded! What do we do?!”

What did they do?! That was a very good question! Yamato’s mind felt like it was going so fast that it was continuously tripping over itself and going nowhere at all. Damn it! Damn it! He was a genius! He skipped almost three grades! He should- he should know what to do in this situation! He wasn’t weak! He wouldn’t die! Only a weak person would die here…!

The green monster went to cast its arms down – and therefore its, its spell – and Yamato flung his hand out to shield himself. Something hot and burning pulsed down his arm, and then there was a burst of roaring heat, followed by a pained squeal.

“Aaaaah!” the green monster recoiled, its small form ablaze as it zipped around wildly, and Obariyon retreated with shocked noises.

Yamato’s head pounded even more, the pain sharp enough that his vision distorted and went grey briefly, leaving him feeling violently sick and drained. What had- that been…?

“W-Whoa! What –d-did you do that, Yamato?!”

Did what? Yamato was struggling not to pass out let alone figure out what the fuck just happened.

Nitta’s screams reached them, and the boy almost dumped him out of his lap when he sat up quickly. “Shit! Io! Uh, damn it, Yamato, can you do that again?!”

Yamato groaned when the boy hauled him to his feet, his vision starting to stabilise again. His head was still pounding, and Obariyon was creeping back towards him – although their attention was mostly focused on Nitta crouching on the floor, her arms over her head while the fairy merrily rained lightning down upon her, laughing loudly.

“Damn it! Stop it!” the boy roared, and he ran over to the fairy. Yamato moved to follow, but suddenly the green monster was in his way, its aura giving off intense anger. Its skin looked charred, and there was an awful smell wafting from it.

“Yooou-!” the green monster growled, but Yamato at that point was so done he was- he just smashed his fist against the small form, sending it to the ground, and while it was there, lifted his foot up and repeatedly stomped on it until its pained squeals stopped.

Yamato stopped, breathing heavily, and toppled when the pulpy form beneath his foot vanished abruptly. He caught himself on his hands and knees though, groaning quietly as a quiet voice murmured; “Ugh…I lost. Well, I guess I’ll be your demon.”

“Hn…?” Yamato tried to stagger back to his feet, but a sudden weight on his back forced him back down, his head striking the platform with an agonising crack. His vision swarm and he felt strong hands grip onto his shoulders, feeling the bones begin to bend painfully.

“Haha you forgot about me, didn’t you?” Obariyon’s cheerful voice laughed. “I dunno how you used magic, but you can’t be me he- URK!”

The weight was suddenly gone with a dull thudding noise, and someone grabbed onto his arm, hauling him up to his feet. The brunet was there, pale and sick looking, and Nitta at his side, her shaking hands clasping around a thick, metal pipe. Where did that come from-?

“Owwww!” Obariyon rolled about on the ground before crawling to its feet. One of its fangs had been knocked right out of its mouth. “H-Hey wait- you have to make a contra-”

Obariyon didn’t finish. Nitta swung that pipe once more, sending it cracking against it bulbous head, and with a squeal it vanished in a burst of energy. The entire platform was silent then, until Nitta dropped the pipe. It clattered loudly against the cracked ground, and they all stood there, breathing heavily, all of them equally shaken.

“Wha…what was that?” the boy panted. His hands were shaking violently, and Yamato lifted up his own hand to rub his sleeve against his temple. A fresh flow of blood had rolled down from his repeated headbutt against the ground…

“Those were…demons,” Yamato said slowly, his tone dazed. That’s what they had been…

“Demons…? What are you saying?” the boy squawked. “Don’t be stupid! There’s no way…!”

“This is horrible…” Nitta’s voice cut through the boy’s stammering, and they all turned to stare down the platform. Numerous crushed corpses littered the place, blood and gore strewn over the cracked platform. Even Yamato felt disgusted by the sight of it.

“What’s going on…?” The boy asked quietly. “We saw the death clip…and then the earthquake happened! And then those monsters appeared…dammit!”

“Calm down!” Yamato said sharply. The boy’s – seriously, what was his name? He looked  _familiar_  – panicked voice was grating against the ache in his head.

“I-I can’t calm down!” The boy shouted, “You saw the death clip too, didn’t you?! This is bad…this is really bad! What’s going on?! P-People are really dying! Just how we saw in the video!”

“I’m scared,” Nitta whispered. She looked to be on the verge of crying, her eyes red and watery. “Can we get out of here first?”

Getting out of this place sounded good to Yamato. It was dry and- who knows if those creatures would return? “Yes…let’s go up to street level.”

“Oh…yeah! We have to hurry up and get out of here!”

Yamato cradled his head with one hand as they climbed up the stairs towards the street above, squinting against the throbbing pain at the bright sunlight. However, as they reached the top of the steps, Yamato dropped his hand in stunned amazement.

Shibuya was utterly  _wrecked_. Fires were roaring through buildings, cars were overturned, and there was a crowd of panicked, terrified people, milling about in barely controlled chaos. It was…something out of one of those ridiculously dramatic disaster films. This couldn’t be Shibuya. A mere earthquake couldn’t cause this sort of devastation…not so quickly, anyway.

“Ha…haha…” the boy gave a quiet, hysterical laugh. “No way…the city’s in ruins. Was this really just a quake?”

“Oh…look! The display!”

Their gazed turned upwards towards the thankfully intact television screen erected on a standing building. It was an emergency bulletin.

_“We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for this urgent news bulletin. At around 13:00, a large-scale calamity, reportedly a vertical shock quake, occurred. There are no details yet, but massive casualties have been reported in the city. Once again, at around 13:00-”_

The television display abruptly went black, and confused, angry shouts rose up from the crowd. No electricity? Unsurprising, considering the level of damage in this area…

“Hey!” the boy shouted, “Why’d it cut off?! What happened?!”

The crowd’s shouted grew even louder, and some of the people within it became belligerent. Yamato felt unease curl in his stomach, and he unconsciously looked about for an easy escape route. In this situation, being caught up in an angry mob is the worst thing possible. Lootings could start happening, amongst other things. People reverted to such base instincts in moments of crisis like this.

“No good…” the boy murmured, “I’m not getting any call services. The TV app isn’t working either.”

“What should I do? I need to get in touch with my parents…” Nitta murmured, his tone anxious. Without warning she darted off into the crowd.

“Io!” the boy shouted, then sighed when she vanished. “Dammit…oh, hey, are you okay?”

Yamato blinked when the boy addressed him, and his brow furrowed slightly. “I’m fine,” he muttered after a pause, lifting his sleeve up to rub at his temple again. He could see the boy grimacing in sympathy.

“We should probably try and find a doctor or something,” the boy said anxiously. “You hit your head pretty hard, right? Oh, uh, I’m Daichi.”

Daichi-

Oh. It was the boy who had sat next to him during the exams earlier. Yamato stared. The exams felt like a lifetime ago after all of that insanity that- never mind. At least he finally had a name to put to the brunet.

Nitta suddenly returned, her expression downcast. “It’s no use…” she murmured, pressing her hand against her side as if to rub out a stitch. “All the public phones are dead. I also asked a cab driver, and he said his radio wasn’t working either…”

That was…extremely worrisome. Yamato could understand the public phones not working, and the television, but for the mobiles and taxi radios? Something was definitely up in this entire situation.

He almost laughed at himself. Right, as if the monsters appearing out of nowhere weren’t indication enough that something was up already.    

All three of them became quiet and sombre, the crowd shifting restlessly around them. What should he do? Yamato wasn’t entirely sure. He could try to go home – it would be an almost two hour walk though, and who knew if it was still standing? Not that he had any great urge to go home. He had no parents or siblings, and the house he lived in wasn’t exactly sturdy enough to fend off surprise monster attacks. Perhaps they could find some shelter-

They? What was he thinking?

“Hm? What’s this?” Shijima murmured.

“What?” Yamato asked automatically, turning to face the other boy. Shijima was gazing down into his phone with a puzzled frown.

“There’s this weird app on my phone all of a sudden. Demon Summoning App…?” Shijima tapped at his phone, his puzzled frown becoming frustrated. “Ugh, what the hell? I can’t delete it! What’s going on here?!”

Yamato slipped out his own phone, flipping it open and finding the app with relative ease. Demon Summoning App. He opened it up and – there, a little picture of the green monster that had attacked him. What- wait, it had said that ‘I’ll be your demon’. So, that meant-

That meant-!

“Dammit, what’s happening?!” Shijima growled. “Everyone knows demons don’t exist! So what was that back there?! Those monsters in the subway! They just-!”

“Excuse me.”

All three of them turned to face the newcomer. It was a tall, stern looking woman, in an official looking uniform. Yamato narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. She didn’t appear to be a policewoman, nor was she wearing the official uniform of the JSDF.

“You three… may I speak to you for a moment?”

“Uh…” Shijima looked a bit cautious, and rightly so. Hrn, despite his flighty nature he did have a brain. “Um, sure…”

“You came up from the subway, didn’t you?” the woman asked. “What did you see down there?”

Yamato stiffened up. He had a feeling she wasn’t asking about the crash of the train, and a glance at Nitta and Shijima told him they had caught on too. Who was this woman? Was she aware of the demons or-? Not that Yamato was planning on telling her otherwise. This was a…good advantage in this situation. In chaotic moments like this, people became like animals, hunting for weakness and indulging in their petty wants without society’s rules binding them.

Demons would be a weapon to use if they turned on him.

“Huh? What did we see?” Shijima looked nervous. He couldn’t lie his way out of a paperbag, could he? “W-Well, the train crashed, and…”

“That much I am aware of,” the woman interrupted. “Wasn’t there something else?”

“…! Something else? Ummm…th-that’s…”

“…” The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly, and Yamato shifted back slightly, his gaze flitting over to where he could see an opening in the crowd. “Let me change the subject then,” she said after a pause. “Give me your phones.”

Definitely not. Yamato gripped onto his phone hard enough to make the plastic creak.

“No,” Yamato snapped before he could contain it, and the woman’s gaze landed on him. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she opened her mouth-

“Sorry! Excuse us, we have somewhere to be!” Shijima said loudly, and started to push both him and Nitta away from the woman. The woman did not follow them, although Yamato could feel her gaze bore into the back of his head until they were well out of sight.

Yamato let himself be moved along with Nitta and Shijima. He didn’t need them but – considering the current situation, there were safety in numbers. Until he gathered enough demons to strike out on his own, he will stick with these two…

He felt a mix of both excitement and terror. A dangerous situation, but… his life had been so  _boring_  and  _easy_. This was something else…something that would truly challenge his intellect and skills. He remembered that hot rush of energy when he set the green demon – the Poltergeist – aflame, and smirked privately to himself.

A horrible, bewildering situation…

He’ll make good use of it. 


	2. Death Clip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess who ends up at the temple instead of Daichi?

It was almost one when they stopped outside of one of Shibuya’s many shopping malls, and the crowds were thinner here, even if the level of destruction wasn’t any less. Some of the windows in the shops were smashed, with glass littering the pavement, although it was hard to discern if it was from the earthquake, or early bird looters.

“Whew…” Shijima whistled, rubbing at his forehead with a faint grimace. “Who was that? So weird…”

Nitta nodded in agreement. “Yeah…she was kind of scary. I wonder what her deal is…”

“In a situation like this, it is safe to assume that she was dangerous, or even an enemy,” Yamato responded, scratching at the blood that had dried against his skin. It came off in reddish brown flakes, and it pulled uncomfortably at his skin whenever he spoke. He needed a sink… his head was still pounding from his headache, but it had subsided to more tolerable levels, and the sunlight didn’t see so painfully bright.

“An enemy?” Shijima looked bemused. “Don’t be weird.”

Yamato levelled a little glare at Shijima, but the other boy’s attention was turning back to Nitta.

“Well, anyway, it’s good we got away, but what do we do now?” Shijima asked, his brow creased into a little frown.

“I need to go back home…” Nitta murmured, her gaze downcast as she nervously wrung her hands, her slim fingers tugging and pulling at her sleeves. “I’m worried about my parents.”

“Oh…yeah, good point,” Shijima’s mood dropped slightly, and he worried his bottom lip briefly. “I’m worried about them too. Oh! Uh, b-by the way!” he suddenly squawked, his face flushing and moving so animatedly he made Yamato jump, “Sorry I didn’t say so sooner, but I’m Daichi Shijima from Class A. This guy here is in the same class and, uh…”

There was a bit of an awkward pause where Shijima’s face scrunched up in visible thought, and Yamato didn’t offer up his name. He was quite infamous at school, so he would be surprised if someone as intelligent as Nitta didn’t recognise or know him. It wasn’t arrogance, he would prefer it if he didn’t stand out so much, but, such is life.

“Yamato…Hotsuin, right?” Nitta offered tentatively. “The one who skipped three grades?”

“Whoa, what?” Shijima gaped openly. “ _Three_  grades?! I just thought you were kind of small looking…”

Yamato definitely glared at Shijima for that one, and he straightened up as much as his small stature would allow. He hadn’t yet hit his growth spurt, so the majority of his classmates towered over him, being technically adults, while he was still in the middle of puberty.

“Yes, three grades,” Yamato replied, his responses clipped, “I’m fifteen years old.”

Shijima’s eyes were in danger of popping out of his skull. “ _Really_? Man, no one said that about you…”

“I’m well aware of what they say about me,” Yamato said coolly.

An awkward silence loomed over them, and Shijima fidgeted guiltily under the weight of Yamato’s glare. However the other boy valiantly composed himself, and after loudly clearing his throat, said; “So, uh, yeah. Um, we’ll be fine. Well, I’ll be fine, since my house is in the neighbourhood. Where do you two live…?”

Nitta stopped her nervous hand wringing. “In Ariake. It’s a little far from here…”

“Hiroo,” Yamato replied shortly.

“Oh, that’s not fa-  _what?_ ” Shijima half-choked. “ _H-H-Hiroo_?! Doesn’t an apartment cost like a million yen a month to live there?!”

Yamato turned his face away with a scowl. “That is none of your business.”

“U-Uh, right…” Shijima swallowed back any further surprise with difficulty, turning back to Nitta. “Right, well, uh, do you…want us to walk home with you?”

“Huh? Uh, well, yeah, it’s pretty far but,” Nitta bit her bottom lip, “You two must be worried about your families…”

“Yeah, but it’s probably better if we go with you,” Shijima said, quickly gaining confidence as he mustered a smile for Nitta. “It’s dangerous for a girl to be alone now…”

“Um, okay…” Nitta was beginning to look a little overwhelmed. “You sure you wouldn’t mind?”

“Let’s just go already,” Yamato said snippily. He saw no point returning home, since it was most likely gone, and he had no need to forage anything of importance from the wreckage. He had no emotional investment in seeing Io Nitta home either, but hopefully wandering Tokyo in a group would mean he could safely capture more demons – or however this thing worked…

“Yeah,” Shijima nodded frantically. “Hmmm, Ariake…will we need to take the train or the bus? Will they even be running?”

“Most likely not,” Yamato muttered, rolling his eyes a little.

Nitta nodded in agreement. “Yeah, so it might be better to go to a park or shelter.”

“Hmm, okay. So parks and shelters, huh? Okay, let’s try our luck with those!”

 

* * *

 

Yamato was completely and thoroughly exhausted. After almost three hours of wandering the streets of Shibuya and Shinjuku, visiting the station and the various parks and shelters, it was apparent that everything was filled to bursting – and that there was something very very off. There were no fire engines or ambulances, no news copters flying overhead… from the looks of it, it was almost as if no one was doing anything at all in this crisis. There was the JSDF but…

They didn’t seem to be doing much either.

Yamato’s mind buzzed over this strangeness, even if his thoughts felt a bit clogged and fuzzy from his concussion, but he couldn’t really see a reason of it. They hadn’t run into anymore demons either, and he was beginning to wonder if they had simply hallucinated the entire thing. He still had the strange app on his phone, but he hesitated in trying to summon the ‘Poltergeist’ in case, well… he wasn’t sure.

He hated being unsure.

Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro…they wandered to all of these places, meeting strange people (that man in Kannagi-Cho), the mysterious woman (Shibuya’s South Exit), groups of lost looking civilians moving from shelter to shelter (Sunset Blvd), until they all came to the agreement that the only thing they could do was literally walk home.

They plotted their route, to go towards Roppongi, then to Tokyo Tower, and then towards Shiba Park, and started to trudge their way there.

Once they reached Roppongi’s Hills plaza, though, they  _had_  to stop, and thankfully Shijima declared a break before he did. Yamato was well aware that Shijima and Nitta’s perception of him had shifted slightly when they realised his young age, and he didn’t want to be _babied_  by them. He was just as competent and strong as them – if not more so since the incident at the station. Showing weakness now by admitting he was struggling in simply _walking_  somewhere was simply unacceptable.

“Ugh, I’m pooped…” Shijima groaned, sitting down on a low, brick wall and tugging at his scarf. “We’re not even half way there…”

“Sorry, Daichi,” Nitta murmured, rummaging about in her bag. “Um, here…”

She produced a half-empty bottle of water, which Shijima stared at hungrily. “This bottle’s half-empty…can I really have this?”

Yamato himself was downright dying of thirst, but he remained quiet, turning away from the group to stare up at the sky. The sun was still high in the sky, and despite the chaos of the city, the sky was a bright, cheery blue colour. It was a bit surreal, really.

“Hey, Yamato,” Shijima spoke up as he twisted the cap off of the bottle. “Do you want some of this? Or, uh, you still kind of need to wash some of that blood off of you, now that I think about it…”

“It’s fine,” Yamato muttered, dropping his gaze from the sky and lifting a hand to try and scratch off the dried blood again. His skin ached dully at even that light pressure, and his jaw felt strangely stiff on that side. No doubt the side of his face was horribly bruised, and probably a bit swollen.

“You sure? It looks sort of nasty…” Shijima was frowning a little, “You know, maybe we should see if we can visit any of the hospitals on the way. They might have some more water as well.”

Ntta nodded slightly in agreement, and Yamato could feel himself bristle as both Shijima and Nitta gazed at him with concern. “Mm. Hold on, I have a handkerchief,” she said, and rummaged in her bag again. Yamato was half-tempted to simply turn on his heel and storm off.

“I told you, I am  _fine_. It is just a bit of blo-”

“Hey,” Shijima interrupted him. “Who’s that over there?”

The three of them turned to see a group of people walking into the plaza. The most noticeable was a woman who was openly struggling to take a single step, her face flushed and long hair clinging to her sweaty skin. She was clutching her shoulder bag with both hands, and she finally stopped, her shoulders heaving from her great breaths.

“We’re almost there!” the man at her side said. He looked to be middle-aged, in a rumpled, dust covered suit. He leaned slightly to try and catch the woman’s eye, offering a smile. “Just past here, and we’re home!”

“I can’t…” the woman gasped, “I can’t walk any more, I can’t…”

“Don’t say that! C’mon, stay with me!”

“Hey…they look like they’re in trouble,” Shijima said worriedly, rising up from the short wall, the bottle of water still in his hand. “Should we talk to them?”

“Yeah…” Nitta agreed, abandoning her search for a handkerchief for now.

“We should leave them be,” Yamato said, “they said that they are close to their-” he paused abruptly, squinting up at the sky. What the- “Is something falling…?”

“What?” Shijima looked up as well. “H-Huh?! What’s-!?”

Something struck the earth with enough force to make the ground shudder. Yamato and Nitta barely managed to keep their balance, however Shijima yelped and fell flat on his rear, the bottle of water flying through the air and clattering onto the plaza floor, spilling its contents.

The woman across the plaza screamed in shock, and Yamato straightened up cautiously, his heart hammering in his chest as the dust began to clear. A bright coloured… _thing_  was before them. It- it looked like an ice cream cone, really, with a gelatinous, pink blob undulating above the multi-coloured ‘cone’ body.

Another demon?!

“W-What is that?!” Shijima squawked, still sitting on the ground out of shock. “It’s moving…!”

**“** **Ω€∑₰Ө”**

The noise was…alien, rising and falling rapidly and setting Yamato’s teeth on edge. Automatically, he took out his mobile phone, flipping it open to see that the Demon Summoning App was already activated and ready for use.

On the screen was a picture of the entity before them, with a name… “Dubhe”?

There was a loud, suction noise, and Yamato looked up hurriedly to see the pink mass double in size, the undulating movements quickening. Yamato took a quick step backwards, and Shijima scrambled to his feet to move back with him. Nitta was just behind him.

“Dubhe…it just got bigger!” Nitta gasped.

The strange entity, Dubhe, wobbled forwards, defying physics itself to do so. Yamato backed up another step and bumped right into Nitta, almost stumbling over her in the process.

 **“** **Ω₰Ө∑€!!”**  The being’s alien cries gained a frantic, almost furious edge to it, and Shijima shifted restlessly at his side. They should definitely flee but-

“What is this thing?! It scared the crap out of me!” the man from earlier stammered, warily eyeing Dubhe. A woman, different one from the tired one, stepped away from it, her hands slightly raised up defensively.

“What’s it doing…? It’s blowing up like a balloon!”

The exhausted woman from earlier approached the strange entity, her expression curious as she scraped her long hair out of her eyes. “It’s moving…maybe it’s not dangerous?”

Just how stupid were these people?!

“Don’t!” Shijima shouted from across the plaza, taking a half-step forward, but Yamato reached out and grabbed the end of his scarf, almost throttling him in the process by dragging him backwards.

“Are you a fool? Let them die if they insist on such stupidity!” Yamato hissed at him.

“Gah!” The other male in the adult group turned to them. He was young looking, with a designer looking jacket, and a naturally scowling face. “Don’t scare me like that! Who are you guys?!”

**“** **∑€₰ΩӘӘ!!!!!”**

Dubhe let out another frantic,  _angry_  series of noise, and a high pitched whining noise started to emit from it, its multi-coloured cone spinning wildly and the pink mass pulsing rapidly. Yamato could practically  _feel_  the energy building up, prickling across his skin like static electricity.

“Wahhh!” Shijima cowered back. “This is bad! This is really bad…!”

It was bad.

With a violent, ear-popping boom, ‘Dubhe’ exploded, the flames surging from around its body painful even from far across the plaza. Yamato was half-blinded, and his ears  _rang_  as the heat and light died down, the entire area thick with smoke and soot.

“Those people…!” Nitta gasped, her hands grasping Yamato’s arm tightly. “Oh my god…!”

As the smoke cleared, the group that had surrounded Dubhe were gone. Only charred piles of ashes remained, and the three of them stared in dumbstruck horror. That alien noise drifted through the haze then, carrying an edge of dark satisfaction, and Dubhe, perfectly intact, wobbled into view, the tip of its cone body disturbing a pile of ash and sending it scattering in the light breeze.

“Oh man,” Shijima’s voice was borderline hysterical, “Crap’s going down, guys! We have to run!”

The suction noise sounded out, and the pink mass started to grow again, its cone body spinning wildly as it advanced towards them with surprising speed. Yamato didn’t need any more reason to stay.

“Run!”

All three of them bolted from the plaza, just as the roar of an explosion chased after them.

 

* * *

 

Yamato staggered to a halt, breathing heavily as he leaned down to brace himself on his knees. He had never ran so hard and fast in his life – he was a bit frail on the physical side of things – but adrenaline and fear for one’s survival were miraculous things…

He swallowed and straightened up, rubbing his sleeve over his forehead to wipe off the sweat. The sun was beginning to dip in the sky, but it was still somewhat blazing hot. Ugh, he hated hot weather.

Wait, where was he?

Yamato paused and looked about his surroundings. He didn’t pay attention to where he was running to, only wanting to put as much distance between himself and that Dubhe creature. He only had that Poltergeist creature, and he remembered how much damage a small burst of flame did to it. Who knew what Dubhe’s explosion would’ve done to it? It incinerated fully grown humans within seconds…

It looked like he was at a shrine. Yamato took a moment to recognise the surroundings. Ah, Senso-ji in Asakusa? He had ran pretty far.

And it seemed he was on his lonesome. He turned away from the shrine, looking down towards the stone steps leading downwards, but couldn’t see a single glimpse of Io Nitta or Daichi Shijima. Ah, looked like they had been split up. No matter. They had only been together out of convenience and necessity.

Although, he felt a bit uneasy at being by himself with creatures like Dubhe running about. He doubted he could fight and win against something like that by himself…

Ugh, what was he saying? Yamato scoffed quietly to himself, walking towards the steps. He winced when his heel pressed against something sharp, and he muttered irritably to himself. A stone in his shoe? How annoying… he limped over to the little pillar by the stone steps, leaning against it while lifting his foot up to try and pull his shoe off.

Only for the pillar to give a warning wobble. He hurriedly back off from it, and stared when the pillar groaned and shook, slowly sinking down into the earth.

What?

The pillar was swiftly replaced by a gold looking contraption, metallic and advanced in structure – but before Yamato could move towards it out of curiosity, a pulse of black energy burst from it, cutting through the stone path towards the shrine’s gates. He shouted and jumped backwards in surprise, staring as the energy hit the lantern and-

“Ahahaha….~”

Malevolent laughter filled the air, and Yamato tensed when energy crackled around him, monsters –  _demons_  – spilling out to surround him. Ice crept along the stone floor, and in the cold haze, a pale, eerie woman appeared, her eyes glowing with alien power. Her lips were blue, and powdery snow fell from her loose clothes with each movement.

“Free at last,” she purred, her voice as sharp as morning frost, “It’s been so long. I am Bai Suzhen.”

Her alien eyes were boring into Yamato’s, and he was frozen in place. He was surrounded. There was no way he could defeat so many demons by himself – and the sheer  _power_  rolling off of this ethereal woman… Bai Suzhen took a step towards him, and ice cracked where she stepped, the temperature dropping so much that Yamato could see his breath.

“Are you the one who broke my seal? I shall repay you…with death!”

Bai Suzhen laughed wildly, and the surrounding demons echoed her laughter. Yamato could only watch as pale blue energy gathered in the female demon’s hands. She lifted her hand up, pointing towards him-

Yamato reacted on instinct, jumping back quickly – only to feel a sharp pain flare up from his thigh. He cried out and felt the wind drive out of his lungs when he fell onto his back, his hands darting down to grasp onto his thigh. A thin coat of ice was covering the skin, the cold so intense it was practically  _burning_ , and he frantically ripped off the layer of ice, breathing quickly as the demons slowly began to advance on him.

He was dead.

Bai Suzhen lifted her hand up again, blue energy gathering, her lips stretched into a malicious, wild grin. Yamato could feel the air whip viciously, carrying a hint of sleet as power built up, and he struggled to scramble to his feet, his leg completely numb and unresponsive.

“That’s it,” Bai Suzhen purred, “Struggle. Make this fun.”

And with that, the demons lunged towards him. 


	3. Frostbite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not exactly a flawless rescue.

At this point in his life, Yamato wondered if he was just an entertaining plaything for a malicious God. A God that thrust him into dangerous, fatal experiences, only to yank him out from the jaws  of death in that last instant simply because it wasn’t done with him yet. There was no other explanation as to how he survived this hopeless situation…

Demons surrounding him, a powerful spirit, Bai Suhzen before him, unable to run away due to a useless leg… as much as Yamato was loathed to admit it, he was too weak to survive such a situation. Nature would dictate that Yamato, a weak, powerless human, would be ripped to shreds and devoured by the supernatural creatures within moments.

However, as he realised today, nature was currently pissing about on the sofa not doing its job anymore.

When the demons had lunged at him, two in particular were closest to him. They were large, towering dog-like creatures with a humanoid appearance, and swinging large blades about them recklessly. Surely, those two creatures could cut Yamato down within seconds…

Instead, something miraculous happened.

The two demons collided in mid-air just before they reached Yamato - and Yamato, at that time, had fallen forwards onto the ground due to his leg buckling from under him. Needless to say, these series of events caused this; the two demons collided with one another, staggering and clawing at each other as their ire turned upon each other, and Yamato, who was now on the floor beneath the two brawling demons, managed to push past the panic enough to try and crawl away under the guise of the distraction.

Bai Suhzen was shrieking angrily at this point, and Yamato managed to frantically scramble away far enough to try clambering to his feet again. Sensation was beginning to return to his leg now, although it was sharp and painful, and it was still difficult to press weight upon it. Yamato completely ignored such things, and as soon as he was on his feet, was already bolting for one of the nearby buildings near the shrine gates. He wasn’t sure what he was doing – again his mind was tripping over itself as it desperately tried to figure out a solution to this hopeless situation – but he knew putting as much distance from Bai Suhzen as possible was a must.

“He is  _getting away_! You fools!” Bai Suhzen howled, and Yamato could feel the temperature dropping, a harsh wind building up and – Yamato cursed and threw himself to the side, hitting the ground hard just as icicles slammed into the space he had been earlier, the ice shattering upon impact.

He curled up tightly, feeling sharp shards skitter over him, and hurriedly tried to get back up once debris stopped flying, his lungs already burning from a mix of exertion and raw panic. Shit. Shit. Don’t panic. Clear mind. You survived them once. You can do it again. Survive survive survive survive

He was on his feet and he flipped open the phone, and one of the dog demons were upon him instantly, blade glinting in the too bright sun and – spark energy Poltergeist was there, and it let out a startled noise and blasted the demon – Kobold his phone said Kobold – back with a gust of strong wind

survive survive  _survive_

Bai Suhzen was moving over to him, her movements slow and graceful yet she practically swallowed up the space between them with unnatural quickness and Kobold again, the other one, with a cut across its muzzle was snarling, swinging its blade

_survive survive survive **survive**_

Poltergeist was cut in twain almost instantly, and Yamato felt the wall of the building slam into his back nowhere to run shit shit think think he needed that power again but honestly he couldn’t remember what he did last time and Bai Suhzen was smiling at him, her lips curved maliciously, and she was suddenly before him, her hands – fingernails clawed – were reaching out for him

**_imgoingtodieimgoingtodie_ **

“Yamato!”

Bai Suhzen  _screamed_  when Obariyon  ** _(?!?!!?)_**  smashed into her, its large, club like hands gripping and pulling at her long, pale hair, and forcing the female spirit to stagger away. Yamato stared in utter bewilderment, his chest heaving, but suddenly a warm rush of feeling swept over him, and the pain that had throbbed in the periphery of his awareness throbbed sharply – then dulled, not quite vanishing but not as painful as before.

“Shit man!” Shijima was suddenly at his side, panting heavily with his face bright red. The fairy from the station was seated delicately on his shoulder, looking utterly unruffled. “How far did you  _run?!_  Okay, we’ve gotta get out of here!”

“What-” Yamato said, his voice weak, but Shijima was gripping onto his arm, pulling him away from the wall towards Nitta – who was standing by the steps. There was a howl of rage behind them, and Yamato looked over his shoulder to see Bai Suhzen throw Obariyon off of her, her hair in disarray and her eyes gleaming savagely.  

And those eyes landed on him, her pretty face contorted with fury.

“GET THEM!” she howled, sweeping out her hand. The Kobolds leapt to do her bidding, and Shijima cursed hysterically, yanking so hard at Yamato’s arm when they ran that it felt like it was going to pop right out of his shoulder.

“Go go go go!” Shijima squawked as they reached Nitta – only to abruptly stop when energy crackled at the top of the steps, forcing them all to jump backwards just as a blade swung where their heads had been moments before.

More Kobolds.

“Oh man, oh crap,” Shijima panted, his head swivelling between the two groups of Kobolds – and the very angry Bai Suhzen gliding over to them. “Oh _crap_!”

“Little pests,” Bai Suhzen hissed, her hands rising, blue energy gathering. The Kobolds watched hungrily, and Yamato’s view was blocked when Shijima and Nitta huddled close to him, all three of them once more helpless and powerless. This wasn’t like at the station though. Bai Suhzen was far more powerful than any fairy, any Poltergiest, any Obariyon…

“Not exactly a flawless rescue,” Yamato heard himself say, his tone wobbling a little. Shijima let out a semi-hysterical laugh.

“Y-Yeah. Shit man…g-guess it isn’t like in video games, huh?”

“Sorry…we didn’t come sooner, Yamato…” Nitta whispered, and Yamato wondered why on earth they came at all – in fact, how did they know he was here? How did they know that he had been in trouble-

“I had a death clip?” Yamato’s stomach dropped. His death – twice in one day? Was it Fate for him to die on this day…?!

“Enough chatter!” Bai Suhzen half-laughed, a cold wind whipping about her once more, carrying sleet. “Time to  _die_ \- URK!”

She was interrupted by a pitchfork flying out of nowhere and colliding with the back of her head.

It was so bewildering that the three of them, and the Kobold demons, stared blankly at where Bai Suhzen had fallen to her knees, her clawed fingers rising up to clutch the back of her head with a small whine of pain. The pitchfork clattered onto the ground – only to be hurriedly snatched up by a flying blue… _thing_  that zipped over with startling speed.

It cackled merrily, zipping away just as fast, over to where a familiar, dark haired woman was striding over to them from behind a shrine building. Her face was set in determination, her gaze flickering over to the trio.

“You kids… what’re you doing here?!” she barked, her phone clasped tightly in her hands. They didn’t have a chance to reply however, as Bai Suhzen rose to her feet, whirling round to face the mysterious woman with a low hiss.

“I have had  _enough_  of you humans crawling out of the woodwork like _cockroaches_ ,” Bai Suhzen snarled, “It ends  _now_!”

The mysterious woman glanced back at Bai Suhzen, her frown intensifying. “You’re right. It does end now. You three!” she shouted over to them, “Fight back! Are you or are you not demon tamers?!”

“Demon tam- what’s a demon tamer?!” Shijima asked, his tone still thick with panic.

“Listen!” the mysterious woman snapped, “Bai Suhzen’s a tough one, but I will handle her! You deal with the other demons!”

Yamato turned his gaze on the surrounding Kobolds. Their bodies were thick with muscle, and the blades looked sharp enough to hack through bone. Did this woman seriously believe they could kill these things on their own?!

“Nnngh, okay, okay…” Shijima was muttering. “Gotta calm down, gotta calm down… ngh! I’m too scared…”

“W-We can do it…” Nitta said, her voice trembling. “We have to…”

Yamato swallowed thickly, but slowly clenched his fist in silent agreement. That was right… they had to do it. He wasn’t, he wasn’t going to die here, no matter how helpless the situation seemed! His Poltergeist was gone but… he flipped open his phone, glancing down at the screen. There was a little menu, and one of the selections…

 _‘Agi’_.

Shijima’s fairy – Pixie, according to his app – pushed off of the boy’s shoulder, fluttering before them protectively. The Kobolds’ attention were immediately on her, and with a mischievous wink, Pixie lifted her hands up and-

Lightning crackled down on them, and they yelped and darted away from the hot bolts of electricity – but the Kobolds behind them took that as incentive to lunge at them. The air was sharp with cold, and as Yamato frantically pressed ‘Agi’ on his phone, he caught a glimpse of the mysterious woman roundhouse kick Bai Suhzen in the face.

If he had time to breathe, let alone think, Yamato would’ve thought that pretty cool.

Instead his vision was half-blinded by a roar of fire that engulfed one of the Kobolds, and the dog-like demon howled in agony, dropping its blade and fleeing, leaving behind the smell of charred flesh and fur. Yamato briefly felt victorious before Nitta abruptly pushed him to the ground, just as one Kobold swung its blade where their heads had been.

Yamato grunted as the girl student’s weight pressed down on him uncomfortably, and he heard Shijima yelp and – thunder, crackling electricity and the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Nitta’s weight lifted off of him, and he felt the cold, sharp and painful in his lungs, and with a flash of blue, the Kobold was abruptly frozen solid, Nitta’s face pale, her phone shaking in her grasp-

And Shijima suddenly kicked the frozen Kobold right in the chest – almost making him topple over in the process, since he threw too much of his weight into it. The Kobold fell and with a high pitched noise, shattered to pieces, the chunks of frozen meat disappearing in cracks of black energy.

Two down.

Behind them, Pixie cried out as one of the Kobolds grabbed onto her small frame, but Yamato was already pushing himself up onto his feet, selecting Agi – the demon was set aflame and it howled, releasing Pixie who quickly zipped back over to Shijima, and

Nitta sent ice at the other Kobold advancing towards them, its fur slightly fluffed from its earlier electrocution, but it shrugged it off with a guttural snarl, lifting up its blade in preparation to strike and – bolts of electricity slammed into it again, making it stagger and its wild swing miss Nitta’s neck by centimetres, slicing off an inch of the girl’s lock.

Nitta cried out and backed away, her hand lifting up even though she hadn’t been hurt, mostly shocked by her near death, and this time it was Yamato who knocked her flat onto the ground when the other Kobold, the one he had set aflame, lunged towards them, its hands bereft of its blade but nails still sharp and damaging.

The burnt Kobold hit the ground beside them, having missed them by inches, but its clawed hand grabbed hard onto Yamato’s arm and wrenched him off of Nitta, dragging him close as its jaws opened wide to tear out his throat and – Shijima was suddenly there, jamming the fallen Kobold blade right into its skull.

The beast howled and recoiled, its eyes rolling, but it released Yamato and staggered away – but only for a few steps before falling to the ground and disappearing in a burst of energy.

Three down.

The final Kobold was slashing furiously at the Pixie, who evaded the blade’s movements with nimble, wild turns and dips. Pixie was giggling, zapping and electrocuting the beast – who eventually lost its patience and finally lunged forwards, lashing out with a clawed hand-

And the mysterious woman’s foot smashed into the side of its head, the Kobold tumbling to the ground, and the blue, pitchfork wielding demon cackled as it thrust its unconventional weapon down, spearing the beast on the prongs. The Kobold squealed, writhing around wildly before it, too, vanished.

There was silence.

Yamato sat up, his arm throbbing where the Kobold, and Shijima, had yanked at it, staring across the ruined shrine grounds. The stone floor was cracked and covered in sheets of thick ice, and there was no sign of Bai Suhzen, or any other Kobold. Nitta was pale looking, her hand pressed against her side, and Shijima looked like he was on the verge of fainting, his knees still trembling violently, with a line of red cutting across his cheek.

“D-Did we win?” Shijima asked, his eyes darting about anxiously. Yamato didn’t blame him. Considering how demons could leap out of nowhere without warning… “We’re all right now, right?”

“Ouch…” Nitta murmured quietly, and she slowly leaned down to rub the side of her leg. “I twisted my ankle. I’m relieved, though. I don’t know how we did it, but we’re all still alive, right?”

“Good work,” the mysterious woman said, dismissing her strange blue demons. She strode over to the golden contraption where Bai Suhzen had escaped. “I’ll put another seal on Senso-ji. Stay back.”

All three of them watched as the mysterious woman held up her phone before the gold contraption, rapidly tapping a series of letters and numbers into the device. The gold contraption glowed, the ground rumbling slightly, before it sank down into the earth. With a flash of light, the lantern reappeared, hanging beneath the shrine gates, and the pillar returned in place of the gold contraption. Aside from the cracked grounds, it was almost like nothing had ever happened.

“Whoa!” Shijima gaped. “The lantern’s back?! But how?!”

The woman ignored Shijima’s spluttering, and her gaze swept over them before settling on Yamato. He stiffened up at the intense gaze scrutinising him, and he returned it with a stubborn tilt to his jaw. He knew he probably looked like he’d been shoved through a woodchipper, and spat back out again, but he refused to appear weak under her assessment.

“…Now, you said you twisted your ankle?” the woman said abruptly, her gaze moving from Yamato to Nitta. She strode over to the other girl purposefully, only to stop and crouch down before her. “Let me see.”

“O-Oh, thank you…”

Yamato slowly picked himself up off the floor. Every inch of him felt  _bruised_ , and his headache, which had thankfully vanished during the fight, had now returned full force, making his vision slightly blurry. He felt  _drained_ , and Yamato knew that if he had another near death experience today, his heart was simply going to give up out of defiance.

“H-Hey, you okay?” Shijima asked him while the mysterious woman tended to Nitta’s ankle. Yamato gave him a dull look, scraping his fringe out of his eyes.

“I’m fine. Just bruised.”

Shijima looked thoroughly doubtful, but Yamato simply ignored him, half-listening to Nitta nervously tell the woman about how chaotic their day had been, where they had been trying to go to, as well as the events that had transpired, up to and including the altercation with Dubhe.

“I see…” the woman murmured, slowly rising to her feet. “It would be best if you didn’t move around much for the time being. But you said you were headed to Shiba Park? Unfortunately, it’s been locked down already?”

“Locked down?” Yamato asked, frowning in confusion. “Why?”

“You saw it too, didn’t you?” the woman said, her gaze settling on Yamato. Again, she scrutinised him closely, and Yamato fought the urge to fidget under the weight of her stare. “Dubhe is headed for Shiba Park.”

“Um, what exactly is that thing?” Nitta asked timidly, “It attacked us out of nowhere…”

“Information on Dubhe, hmmm? There’s nothing I can tell you as of now,” the woman said, finally looking away from Yamato.

“Haahah…ha,” Shijima was laughing, although the noise was empty and tired. “Don’t be an idiot! This isn’t some monster movie!” his voice rapidly grew in volume, shaking from fear, “We gotta contact the police and stuff! Sic the SDF on that thing’s ass!”

“Police? SDF? I advise against that,” the woman said sternly, “You’d be wasting your time.”

“Wha…?!”

“Guns have no effect,” the woman said calmly, unmoved in the face of their horror, “Neither do bombs, or any other conventional weaponry.”

“What?!” Shijima squawked. “What’re you saying?! Are you out of your mind?!”

“I presume you tried them…” Yamato murmured, partly to himself.

“That’s right,” the woman said, “You’re pretty sharp.”

It was just common sense, Yamato thought irritably.

“There’s more as well,” she continued, “You must have wondered for yourselves why the sky is silent… Every jet, chopper, and other vehicle we sent up there to get a better view was shot down. There’s nothing we can do while crawling on the ground like insects.

“…unfortunately,” the woman sighed, “it doesn’t look like that situation will improve any time soon.”

 There was silence as they all digested this.

“Is Dubhe a demon?” Yamato finally asked. He wasn’t entirely sure why, but something about that particular creature had been bugging him. It didn’t seem…demonic to him, which was utterly ridiculous since demons apparently came in all shapes and sizes. It was just the aura it had given off… it had been so… _alien_ …

“No,” the woman replied. “I can’t go into details, but it’s not like the demons you and I contracted with.”

She suddenly turned to Nitta. “Your ankle doesn’t look seriously hurt, but you’ve twisted it a little. I can treat it if you come with me,” her eyes glanced at Yamato again, as if including him in that ‘treatment’. Yamato sniffed and turned away in response. The woman continued; “I’m going to Nagata-cho, so follow me.”

“H-Hey, wait!” Shijima protested, “Wait, we, we don’t even know who you are…”

“Oh,” the woman blinked, and she briefly looked flustered before her cold expression returned. “I’m sorry. I’m Makoto Sako.”

Yamato studied this ‘Makoto Sako’ from the corner of his eye as the woman turned to Nitta and offered her shoulder to her. They began slowly walking away from the shrine, and each step sent a slow stab of pain travelling up Yamato’s spine to the base of his skull, making his vision grey out periodically. His body was at its complete limit.

There was no way he could continue for much longer.

It had barely been a few hours since this incident as well, and he was barely scraping by. Yamato felt disgust at himself rise up in his throat, and he glowered down at the floor as he morosely trailed after his companions. He couldn’t survive by himself. He had to be saved repeatedly…

Weak weak  _weak_. 


	4. Chief of JP's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chief Kageyama was the weirdest man Yamato ever met.

In the span of six hours, the entirety of the world went straight to Hell.

Even though Hiro had been expecting it, had JP’s ready to leap into action at the slightest rumble of Giant Apocalypse Now, it still startled him how rapidly the entire situation had devolved into Chaos. They were barely managing to keep the general populace calm, even though there were demons and Dubhe running amok massacring whoever was unfortunate enough to cross their paths.

Speaking of demons…

“A lot of people signed up to your website,” Hiro murmured, looking over the top of his laptop. Across his desk, a pale haired man was curiously examining a paperweight in the shape of a Jack Frost, turning the little figurine over with long, thin fingers.

“It appears so,” the man replied, finally setting the figurine down delicately. “Is that a problem?”

“Not really, but it is currently biting us in the ass,” Hiro sighed, his gaze lowering back to the screen of his laptop. He grinned to himself. “Just too many people getting killed off and letting their demons run around. But we kind of expected this.”

The man said nothing, although he pressed his hand against his mouth in clear worry. “—…”

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Hiro stood up, closing the lid of his laptop with a soft ‘click’. “What have I said about pulling that face? Anyway, considering how rapidly the situation is devolving, it’s probably good to have a few demons running around keeping everyone on their toes.”

“Keep them on their toes?” the man repeated, his hand lowering. “Are you saying that the added danger offers motivation?”

“In a way,” Hiro pulled his long, dark coat from where it hung on the back of his chair. He pulled it on, slowly buttoning up the front and reaching behind him to adjust the bunny-eared front. Not exactly a professional garb for the Chief of JP’s but…whatever. He could wear what he wanted. He was the Chief.

“Think about it – fighting demons if they have the power to will make them stronger, right? And everyone needs to get stronger to survive the next few days. Humanity can’t falter or fail.”

“Of course,” the man smiled slightly. “To keep the freedom that you so wish…”

Hiro’s phone trilled out the upbeat song of ‘Super Hero’, and he held up a hand to stall the man’s words, slipping his phone out of his coat’s pocket. He flipped it open, pressing it against his ear. “Chief Kageyama.”

After a pause, Hiro hummed. “I see. I’ll investigate it.” He snapped the phone shut and slipped it back into his pocket, turning back to the man. “Sorry, Al Saiduq, I’ve got to go.”

“He has come, hasn’t he?” the man, Al Saiduq, asked. He inclined his head. “I shall leave you then.”

Hiro huffed. “Yes, I finally get to see this mysterious ‘He’ you’ve been talking about for the past few weeks,” he smiled though, giving the man a pointed look, “Don’t angst too much.”

Al Saiduq vanished in a flash of blue, and Hiro rubbed his forehead with a quiet sigh. He had expected this situation to happen, was practically raised to fight against this very thing but still…

He couldn’t wait ‘til this day was over.

**—-**

“Please be quiet, I wish to avoid any trouble…” Sako whispered to them, ushering them through the busy lobby of the ‘JP’s Headquarters’. Yamato would’ve been a bit more awed by his surroundings if he didn’t feel ready to simply curl up on the floor and nap, and merely stuck close to the woman’s side as they made their way through the lobby and up the metal stairs to the corridors that lined the book shelved walls.  

One of the corridors led away from the lobby, towards what looked like a dormitory area. As Sako stopped in front of one door, beginning to open it, Yamato felt someone suddenly appear directly behind him, a gloved hand landing heavily on his shoulder and almost making him leap a foot in the air.

“’Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello. Wot’s all this then?” Someone said in English, adopting a very poor accent.

Sako turned quickly, bracing up as her expression flashed briefly with panic. “C-Chief Kageyama…!”

“At ease, Makoto,” the voice said, slipping back into Japanese. The hand dropped from his shoulder and Yamato immediately turned around and backed up until he almost bumped into Shijima, glaring at the man who dared to touch him.

Standing before them was a young adult – very young, probably barely twenty years old – dressed in a long black coat with a blue and white striped turtleneck sweater beneath it, and a pair of casual blue jeans and plain trainers. It clashed  _horribly_ , a mesh of professional and casual – and the man’s hair, did he even know what a hairbrush was?

Yamato’s hair wasn’t exactly neat, but those dark locks could swallow combs whole!

The man, Chief Kageyama, was smiling in clear amusement, and his blue eyes dropped to pin Yamato down with an intense, scrutinising look, almost as if he was trying to pick his way through Yamato’s defensive and right into his brain. Yamato barely fought the urge to look away.

“They look cute, Makoto, but you can’t keep them,” Kageyama said, lifting his gaze to stare at Sako, adopting a very stern expression. “Your harem will have to be postponed until after the crisis.”

“Sir!” Sako stammered, her cheeks reddening in clear embarrassment. “I- that is not my intention! I was merely, these men have signed up for that site-”

Kageyama lifted his hand, stopping Sako as his face split into a mischievous grin. “Makoto, I’m pulling your leg. Geeze, the lady doth protests too much. Makes me think you do have plans for a dirty lil’ harem… “

“Who is this weirdo?” Shijima whispered under his breath, and Yamato barely restrained the urge to elbow him. The man was obviously of a higher rank than Sako, and angering him by calling him ‘weird’ would not do them any favours!

…even if he was quite peculiar.

“Anyway,” Kageyama appeared serious suddenly. “If you want to administer first aid, the infirmary is better for that. That poor kid looks ready to pass out.”

Yamato bristled. “I’m not-”

“Of course, sir,” Sako interrupted him. “I just thought-”

“Aaah, I’m not a tyrant. I’m not saying you can take random civilians in here whenever you want, but in this case I’ll make an exception,” Kageyama was looking at him again, “This facility is normally off limits, you see. Well, go get patched up. We’ll give you some supplies and send you on your way, okay?”

With that, Chief Kageyama turned on his heel and strode off, the ears on his hood (?!) fluttering in his wake.

“That was weird,” Shijima commented.

“That’s enough of that,” Sako said, slowly ushering them down the corridor again. Yamato almost groaned. He just wanted to  _sit down_  already. “He’s Hiro Kageyama…Chief of JP’s.”

“Chief,” Nitta murmured as she limped along, “So he’s your superior, Makoto?”

“That’s right.”

“H-Him… Chief?! But, but he barely looked any older than us, right? Is he really that high up?” Shijima asked, looking understandably dubious. Chief Kageyama had looked extremely young to be the leader of a hidden, underground organisation.

…This was beginning to reach anime levels of stupidity.

“He seems unusually generous to a group of random civilians,” Yamato muttered. That was bothering him. Why waste medical supplies – that would be used extensively in whatever was currently happening – on a group of civilians who wouldn’t matter to the organisation? It made no sense…

“Chief Kageyama is… a very kind man, despite his position,” Sako replied, “However, considering the situation, I wasn’t sure if I could get away with bringing in a civilian to treat a sprain…”

“I see…”

Suspicious.

**—-**

The infirmary was glaringly white, and quite spacious. There were several hospital beds, and there were medical machinery that Yamato was unsure of. It was like a functioning hospital, and Yamato had a suspicion that one of the doors led to an operating theatre as well.  

There had been a few JP’s employees being seen by the doctors there at the same time, some with horrible looking burns, some with deep, serious cuts, and others with broken bones. They left perfectly healed, the doctors carrying a power that made their hands glow with a warm, pale light and mend broken flesh as easily as brushing away lint.

It was obviously magic, and Yamato had remembered the rush of warm energy that had touched him in the battle against Bai Suhzen. Could they wield that type of power? All they could do was little gusts of power, barely anything of worth… did this take years of training to accomplish? Years that they didn’t have?

Yamato didn’t want to think on it.

Nitta’s twisted ankle had been healed within minutes, and Yamato had been unable to escape the doctor’s grasp when their eyes turned upon him. Apparently Yamato looked to be on death’s door, and he had suffered almost ten minutes of being prodded and scrutinised as the warmth of healing energy continuously flooded into him as a result.

Moderate concussion, cracked shoulder blade, bruised tailbone, muscle damage in the thigh… minor injuries, but when they were cured – Yamato felt like he was finally seeing the world clearly once more. Ever since he had left that train station, everything had been foggy and distant. The concussion’s fault, obviously.

Thankfully the doctor didn’t bother with Yamato once he had been healed. There was a continuous stream of injured employees walking in and out of the infirmary now, and every bed and doctor’s time was precious. Yamato gratefully hopped off of the hospital bed and moved over to where Nitta and Shijima were conversing with Sako near the entrance of the infirmary.

“I’ll walk you to the facility’s entrance,” Sako was saying as Yamato approached, her gaze giving him a once over to make sure he looked fine. “Just let me get you some supplies to send you on your way.”

Sako left, and then it was just the three of them.

“Man…” Shijima sighed, “What a relief! She was a lot scarier when we first met her.”

“Mmhm, I’m glad she wasn’t as bad as she seemed,” Nitta agreed, a small relieved smile on her face. “My ankle doesn’t even hurt anymore…”

“Yeah. Do you feel okay, Yamato?” Shijima asked him, leaning towards him slightly to peer at him closely. Yamato scowled at him, pressing his hand against the older boy’s forehead and pushing him out of his personal space.

“Fine,” he sniffed. “My injuries were minor.”

“Oi, hey, no need to get huffy over it,” Shijima grumbled, stepping back and rubbing his forehead. “Hm…hm?! Ah…”

Shijima suddenly made a strange face, pressing his thighs together and bending down slightly. Both Yamato and Nitta stared at him in obvious confusion.

“What on earth is wrong with you?”

“N-Now that the pressure’s off…the pressure’s on! Where’s the bathroom?” Shijima was bouncing a little now, obviously barely keeping it in at this point. Yamato felt embarrassed just to stand next to him.

However, Shijima raised a good point. With all the chaos that had been happening, Yamato hadn’t really thought about hunger, or thirst, or other…bodily functions, and as if his bladder had been helpfully reminded by Shijima’s odd little dance, there was an insistent pressure demanding to be relieved brought to his attention.

“…tch. Stop moving so ridiculously. I’ll help you look,” Yamato grumbled, managing to maintain dignity as he opened the infirmary doors.

“Yesss! Thank you!” Shijima gushed behind him. “A friend in need is a friend indeed!”

“I’ll wait here and tell Makoto where you went,” Nitta called after them.

They wandered down the alleyway, Shijima making pained little noises and wobbling in a zigzagging line as if his bladder was in danger of exploding. It was giving Yamato an increasing urge to simply demand he piss in the middle of the hallway if he was so desperate – although if Shijima went, Yamato highly doubted he would be able to hold it in for much longer either.

“Ungh, hurry… I can’t hold it…” Shijima whimpered as they walked down the catwalk behind the clocks in the lobby.

“Try,” Yamato told him through gritted teeth, his fingers curled tightly into the hem of his shirt. “You’re an adult. You should be able to hold on for five more minutes-”

“-Are you serious?”

Both Yamato and Shijima paused when they heard Sako’s voice. It was just at the end of the corridor, near the corner that led towards an unexplored part of the headquarters. There were three people there, Sako, a nameless JP’s employee, and – Chief Kageyama.

“How do we know they’re not abusing the summoning app?” the nameless employee was saying. He was wearing a uniform that wasn’t like the plain yellow and black ones the majority was wearing. It seemed customised like Sako’s – a higher up employee?

“They cooperated with me and helped reseal coordinate K,” Sako was saying, giving the nameless JP’s employee a disapproving frown. Chief Kageyama’s expression was unreadable. “I don’t think they’d abuse it.” 

“They seem quite young,” the nameless employee argued, “we can’t be certain that they might not get  _ideas_.”

“He does have a point,” Chief Kageyama said thoughtfully. “At the very least, we should keep them close by, right? They have the demon summoning app… they could be of some use as well.”

“Sir,” Sako protested, “they’re just civilians-”

“With battle experience, and a sudden power just dropped into their laps,” Kageyama interrupted. “Observation would be best here. Move them to the proper location.”

“Wha… are they going to jail us?!” Shijima whispered furiously to him, all thoughts of the bathroom gone.

“Imprisonment,” Yamato confirmed, already backing up a step. “We should leave.”

“Y-Yeah! Let’s get out of here!”

They rushed back to the infirmary, quickly explaining the situation to Nitta. Yamato wasn’t one to leap to conclusions – Chief Kageyama’s wording had been extremely vague, after all – but the thought of being imprisoned, no, it was too much of a risk. They may be weak by themselves, but Yamato had learned his lesson.

He had been arrogant when initially receiving the demon summoning app. Not anymore. A bit of a caution, fighting foes that were well within their range of abilities, slowly gaining power, that was the way to go. They could flee if they bit off more than they could chew.

“W-What?” Nitta looked bewildered at their – well, Shijima’s – panicked explanation, “I don’t get it, what’s going on?”

“Look, we need to run!” Shijima hissed to her, keeping their voice low so they wouldn’t be overheard by the employees in the infirmary. “Let’s hurry and get out of here!”

“O-Okay?”

They somehow managed to slip out of the headquarters, not meeting Sako or Chief Kageyama in the hallways or lobby. Yamato found that a bit odd – if he ordered their arrest, Sako should’ve moved directly back to their position, or at least, told those near the elevator not to let them leave. But their escape wasn’t hindered at all, and all too soon they were out of the Diet Building and a street away.

“We made it out,” Nitta panted, wiping the back of her hand over her forehead. “But, um, what now?”

“We should get far away from here,” Shijima replied, “Like, continue to Ariake or something!”

Their phones beeped abruptly, and Yamato frowned, slipping his mobile out of his pocket. The others copied his motions, all of them hesitant to check it.

“Is it another death clip?” Nitta asked warily.

“I hope not,” Shijima groaned. “I don’t think I can take much more of this today…”

“Let’s just check,” Yamato said irritably, opening up the email. “…Demon Auction?”

“What?”

 **FROM:** Nicaea  
 **SUBJECT:** Demon Auction added!

_The Demon Auction function has been added to the Demon Summoning App. This replaces the old laborious methods of forming demon contracts with a simple auction. You can bid for the right to a demon’s services. They will then become useful allies! Use your demon partners to your advantage!_

Yamato stared at the words, slowly soaking them in. A Demon Auction? It was that simple? He had thought that they would have to defeat the demons in combat- but in retrospect, they had defeated those Kobold demons, and they hadn’t joined them at all. Did that mean that the Demon Summoning App had a default demon to serve the user?

“Demon Auction? What the hell is this?” Shijima asked, frowning at his phone.

“Just as it sounds,” Yamato replied. “We can buy demons to serve us.”

“I wonder why though…” Nitta murmured, “There’s so much we don’t know about the Demon Summoning App.”

“Yeah, what’s the deal here?!” Shijima huffed, snapping his phone shut and shoving it into his pocket. “I just signed up to the site as a joke because of the rumours! And now look what’s happening! All these demons are turning up everywhere!”

“And that’s not all. There’s Dubhe too…” Nitta added.

“Yeah! And those guys…JP’s, was it? What’s their story?!” Shijima began to pace about, practically vibrating with nervous energy, “They knew about the demons and had that massive facility under the Diet Building! And some of them were talking about putting us ‘under observation’!”

“They’re also very calm during this as well,” Yamato said thoughtfully. “Isn’t that strange? It is almost as if they have expected this…”

“Mmhmm,” Nitta nodded, “And the disaster itself… that’s kind of strange too. Like, Shibuya was wrecked, but other places aren’t as bad off…” She looked down at their feet. “What is going on…?”

“Dammit!” Shijima pulled at his hair, stopping his pacing with an aggravated sigh, “This makes no sense at all. Ever since we got the death clip in the subway… or actually, ever since we registered at Nicaea, everything’s gone to hell!”

“No,” Yamato lifted his head with a steely glint in his eyes. “Not everything.”

“H-Huh?” Shijima turned to look at him. “You seriously think we can use the summoning app and Nicaea work for us?”

“Of course,” Yamato drew himself up to full height, even if he was shorter than Shijima. He tilted his jaw proudly. “If we never signed up to Nicaea, do you think we would be alive now? No. We would be dead and crushed beneath the train. We simply have to adjust to our current situation, and learn the secrets of this Demon Summoning App.”

Nitta was nodding in agreement. “Yes, we have to rely on them to survive.”

“Huh?” Shijima looked between them rapidly, “You too, Io?”

“Well, you never know when we might run into demons,” Nitta murmured, looking at her feet again, “I want to steer clear of them, but if we have to end up fighting them again…”

Yamato gave Nitta a considering look. It seemed like he had underestimated her. He had thought she was weak willed and shy, but in the past few hours, she had proven herself to possess a core of steel when the situation demanded it. Her doormatty behaviour was still annoying but… Yamato was willing to ignore it in favour of her usefulness now.

“What the… are you suggesting we win strong demons from the auction as our allies?!” Shijima stammered. “Are you  _nuts_?! You’re just fine with this, Io…?”

“Then it’s decided,” Yamato said abruptly. “We will collect the necessary funds to purchase strong demons from the auction, and learn how to use the skills given to us competently.”

“Urgh, fine, fine…” Shijima groaned. “I-I’m no chicken… so what’s our next step?”

“O-Oh,” Nitta spoke up nervously, “Um, would it be okay if we headed for Ariake?”

“Huh? Oh! Right! For sure, right, Yamato?” Shijima glanced at him – no, more like pleaded him with his eyes. Yamato gave him a flat look. He wanted no part in Shijima’s awkward attempts to get close to Nitta… but it wasn’t like he had a choice.

“I guess.”

“Thanks,” Nitta smiled in relief, I guess we can start by walking to Harumi? Once we’re there, Ariake will be around the corner…”

“Okay, but remember those demons? We might run into them again,” Shijima nodded firmly, “So we should just stick to roads that seem safe!”

“A wise decision,” Yamato droned, “But first…” he squinted slightly at Shijima. “Didn’t you need to use the lavatory?”

“H-Huh-? Oh, man! Why did you have to remind me?!” Shijima whimpered, clenching his thighs together. “Quick, let’s find a public toilet before I explode!”

Yamato mentally patted himself on the back as they followed after the desperate Shijima. There was no way he was walking to Ariake on a full bladder – but neither was he going to admit needing the toilet aloud either.


	5. Strawberry Explosion!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They just couldn’t catch a break.

“Oh, I think you can see the Daiichi Hotel down there-”

“Hey! If you’re gonna make a comment about me-!”

Yamato tuned out Shijima’s and their newest member’s playful arguing behind him, his attention mostly focused on his phone. While he wasn’t pleased that they had obtained another tag-along to their little band of misfits, he had to admit that this ‘Joe’ had his uses. During the battle against the demons, they had unlocked two unique things; the Skill Crack, and the Fate Viewer.

They had obtained a few new abilities due to that battle, which Yamato realised could be switched out and installed at will through the phone (although it would probably be a bit dangerous in the midst of battle, since it required full attention to uninstall and select a new ability to ‘equip’). It was useful, and eased whatever anxiety he had about his recent failure. It seemed that they wouldn’t have to train continuously in time they didn’t have to become stronger – they could simply ‘win’ the skills from demons.

And with the Demon Auction, they had managed to scrape together enough ‘Macca’ to purchase some stronger demons for themselves. These were the first few steps of separating Yamato from his earlier failures against Bai Suhzen. Embarrassing… he had only survived due to the others, and for someone who had prided themselves on pure independence…

Which brought him to the other function. Fate Viewer. An app that measured one’s ‘intimacy’ with those they had met. Why would he need such a thing? He and the others would soon go their separate ways once they stabilised themselves within this chaotic city. Yamato certainly wasn’t going to stick around once he was strong enough to stand on his own once more.

The numbers on the Fate Viewer mocked him. Daichi Shijima and Io Nitta at Fate Level One…

Ugh…

A sudden, sharp cracking noise jolted Yamato out of his thoughts, and their group stopped, immediately growing quiet. Yamato kept a tight hold on his phone, his gaze sweeping down the darkening street. The sun was half hidden behind the tall buildings now, splashing the sky with pink and orange colours. There weren’t any dim glows of the street lights – and even the buildings were dark.

“Did you hear that?” Shijima asked quietly, and they all bunched together a bit more. They were like a group of hunted animals, Yamato noted with self-disgust.

“Ah, it sounded like it came from the crossroads,” Akie said, his tone absent-minded as usual. “Maybe we should go towards the hotel and take the long way round to avoid it.”

“May-”

The sharp cracking noise sounded out again, except like time it was in a rapid, staccato rhythm, carrying human and inhuman shouts and screams. Wait, this was-!

“I-Is that  _gunfire_?”

It  _was_  gunfire. Squinting in the gloom darkening the street, Yamato could see tiny little flashes in the far distance where the large crossroads were.

“The SDF?” Nitta suggested, her voice nervous. “Maybe, there’re demons…”

There was no maybe about it. Yamato glanced to the side, at one of the roads that went down towards the Daiichi Hotel. Yes, Akie’s suggestion was best. They should avoid any fights, especially battles that had panicked humans with automatic rifles-

“Whoa-! Look out!”

There was a sudden flash of red, and everyone in their group immediately threw themselves onto the ground in response. A car several metres away was slammed into by a large ball of fire, sending it launching high into the air as it exploded. The metal carcass slammed into the road not far from Yamato, the noise of crashing metal making his ears hurt, the heat of the fire consuming it intense enough to make his skin burn even from the distance he had from it.

“W-What was that?” Shijima’s trembling voice squawked, the brunet already scrambling back to his feet. Yamato pushed himself up onto his knees, squinting from the glare of the fire to see glowing, numerous eyes in the gloom making their way towards them.

“Ohh~~” a soft whisper drifted from the gloom, sounding feminine and sibilant. “It seems some lambs have stumbled their way to our banquet. Young lambs, soft lambs, oh, how succulent their meat would be…”

The eyes were staring right at Yamato as the eerie voice spoke, and he felt sick to his stomach in response. He quickly got back to his feet, gripping his phone tight in his hand. Despite the light cast by the flaming car, their attacker was still nothing more than a silhouette, their group blinded by the bright glare of flames.

The gunfire was growing louder now, and the shouts were terrified – coming towards their direction.

“All shepherded into one place, mmhmm, mmhmm…” the voice chuckled, and orbs of light appeared, flickering like fire. “I don’t think I will roast the little one yet. He looks so delicious. I’ll eat him slowly. While alive, of course, watch him cry in pain, mmhmm…I don’t like eating girls though. Too fatty. Ahahaha!!”

The orbs flared – but a blur of white passed by Yamato’s legs and shot into the gloom. The feminine voice shrieked in pain, and a burst of fire exploded against the side of the building close by to them, having been shot entirely off course.

“Q-Quick!” Shijima’s voice snapped Yamato out of his disgusted horror. “That things gonna kill us if we just stand here!”

The fire from the building cast more light on the street, and their assailant was revealed to be a strange…’woman’. Arms clutching coloured orbs sprouted from her head, her mouth stretched into a wide grin, with her body nothing more than an open, red dress, glitters of stars making up the interior. She was eyeless, and instead it was the orbs, twinkling and glittering, that gave the impression of eyes earlier.

A small hare – the Hare of Inaba – was standing before her, positively tiny in comparison to the demonic goddess, its ears fully erect and fur fluffed.

“You dare attack me with such a pitiful guardian?” the woman laughed, her orbs glowing with power once more. “A little rabbit…brave little rabbit…you will join our Nebiros’s banquet, won’t you?”

The orbs were focused on Yamato again, and he had a feeling she was speaking directly to him. He just growled in response, summoning his two equipped demons. Tam Lin and Ogre appeared beside him, and he heard the crackle of energy behind him that said the others did the same as well.

“I don’t think we should fight this, uh, woman,” Akie said quietly, “Looks way too powerful.”

Yamato was in agreement. The entire air prickled with power, and the sheer strength of those blasts…Yamato did not want to get hit by one of those fireballs.

There was a sudden scream, and all of them jumped when a body was thrown past the demonic woman, slamming into the road with a sickening crack. Something clattered and skidded across the tarmac, stopping at Yamato’s feet, catching the firelight on its metal surface. An assault rifle.

Nitta made a shocked noise. The body that had been thrown was obviously an SDF member judging by the ruined uniform. Half of the fabric was melted and fused into burned, charred skin, and one of the arms had been torn off, leaving a broken stub of white bone jutting out of pink, torn muscle, strings of ligaments hanging out of the ripped arm. The poor corpse’s helmet was gone, revealing a cracked open skull with bits of pinkish grey lumps oozing out onto the road-

Yamato very nearly threw up at the sight.

“Oh my god…” Shijima choked behind him.

“Ahaha…ahahaha! That look of fear! Mmhmm, mmhmm, I love it! I am Tzitzimitl, the Tyrant,” the demon chuckled. She flicked her hand, and with a loud squeal, Shijima’s Hare of Inaba caught fire, killing it within seconds. “And you, my dears, are the lambs I shall offer to Nebiros.”

Growls and purrs of demons filled the dark street, and shapes shifted behind Tzitimitl, their eyes hungry and intent upon them. Yamato’s demons shifted their weight anxiously beside him, and Tam Lin’s eyes narrowed, settling a large, gloved hand around his upper arm in a protective grip.

Yamato turned his head slightly, glancing behind him to see Shijima’s pale face. Nitta was obscured behind the brunet, and he could see Akie in the corner of his gaze, the adult shifting his weight from one foot to the other. There was a narrow road leading down towards the hotel, and if they could run fast enough…

Could they outrun these demons? They were clearly out of their league. Again, and again…dammit! How were they going to get stronger if all of their enemies were too powerful to win against?!

“Prepare to run,” Yamato told them, managing to keep his voice calm and steady.

“No shit,” Shijima half-laughed. His entire body was shaking like a leaf, looking like he was ready to vibrate right out of his clothes in outright fear.

“Enough,” Tzitzimitl’s voice cut through their whispering, and she glided forwards, her orbs glowing with power once more. “Come here and let me-”

Yamato cast Zan as quick as his fingers would allow, the weak gust of wind slamming right into the demon’s face. It didn’t seem to hurt her, but she jolted backwards with a shocked shriek, her hands lifting up to claw at her face. Yamato didn’t stick around to see her recover.

Demons spilled past Tzitzimitl, but Yamato was already running. Ogre bound a few of the attacking demons, and the world warped and twisted when Tam Lin’s Phantasm teleported them several metres away – Yamato’s head spinning slightly from disorientation. His demon pulled him along insistently though, bellows roaring behind him as they ran.

For one terrifying minute, Yamato’s world was of running and warping, his arm  _aching_  from Tam Lin’s powerful grip. He didn’t know where the others were, if he was with them, if it was just him and his demon (for his phone had beeped, signalling Ogre’s swift death), just running until his lungs ached and his legs stumbled, his physically weak body unable to push forth anymore.

They stopped before he passed out, thankfully, and Yamato hunched over on himself as he sucked in great gasps of air, Tam Lin’s hand still gripping him tightly. He stared down at his feet, his stomach  _hurting_  and roiling with deep seated nausea. He could still see that ruined body every time he blinked. Disgusting. Weak. Disgusting. Weak. Weak…

Yamato straightened up with a groan, brushing off his demon’s hand without a word. Ah, where was he…

“That was close, huh?”

Yamato almost leapt right out of his skin at the sudden, breathless voice, and he whirled around to see Akie walking towards him, his Itsunade flapping beside him. Ah, that demon possessed the ‘Flight’ ability, didn’t it. Akie was dusting off his hat, his hair slightly ruffled and damp with sweat. When the older man reached him, Akie slipped his hat back on, and gave him a lazy smile.

“Looks like we lost the others though. You alright there?”

“I’m fine,” Yamato said automatically, fixing his school tie. It had become slightly loose during the mad dash. “What happened to your other demon?”

“Ahh…seemed like it met the same fate as yours,” Akie tutted. The man’s eyes skimmed their surroundings before he turned around to stare down the road they had come from. “Uhh…oh, I think Shinbashi isn’t far from here. Just go forwards. We’ll meet up with the others at the bridge, hopefully.”

“If they’re alive.”

“If we escaped, I think they did too.”

Yamato didn’t say anything else, quietly dismissing Tam Lin. Akie himself dismissed Itsunade, and they continued on in silence. Yamato still felt exhausted, his legs aching, but he refused to speak up about it. They set a quick pace, eager to put as much distance between themselves and the demons, and by the time they reached Shinbashi, night had already fallen.

“Maaaan…it’s so dark now,” Akie sighed, “But we’re here in Shinbashi. We’ll be at the Metropolitan Expressway in no time.”

“Hn,” Yamato grunted in response, practically dragging his feet from sheer exhaustion at this point. True, they weren’t far from the Expressway, but the bridge was still quite far, and the bridge itself was longer still! They would be walking well into the night, and perhaps the hours of the morning to reach their destination.

“You tired?” Akie spoke up suddenly. Despite his air headedness, he was sharper than Yamato anticipated. “We can break here.”

“No. It’s fine.”

“So it’s sublime?” Akie said abruptly in English, confusing Yamato for a moment. “Haha, alright. We’ll go slow then.”

Akie was weird.

They continued on, passing under an old railroad bridge – and immediately heard a familiar voice drifting around the corner of a nearby building. Headlights were piercing the darkness, with the purr of a truck rumbling in the night air, and Shijima’s voice could be heard, as well as Nitta’s.

“Alright! Now we can ride in style!” Shijima was saying happily. “We can reach the bridge and wait for the others there.”

The sound of an engine being revved, and a delivery truck slowly reversed out, Nitta walking past the corner after it as well – or rather, limping. Hn, did she twist her ankle again?

Nitta spotted them, and lifted her arm up in greeting. “Oh! You’re okay…!”

“Guys!” Shijima’s head popped out of the truck window, stopping its reversing to deliver them a relieved grin. “Check it! I found a truck, so we can get to Io’s house before midnight, hopefully!”

This was a stroke of luck, and the thought of just sitting down for an hour or two sounded like heaven.  Yamato’s shoulders relaxed a fraction, and he walked towards the purring truck with Akie, finally stopping beside Nitta in front of it.

“So when were you going to inform us that you could drive?” Yamato asked pointedly. “This would’ve been useful to know about, oh, five hours ago.”

“Hey, hey! The thought didn’t occur to me then! Could you blame me? Getting attacked by demons every minute…” Shijima grumbled, reaching out to adjust the large side view mirror of the truck. He paused suddenly, tilting the mirror up a bit as he squinted. “What the-”

Something exploded high above them, making all of them throw up their arms defensively and Shijima yelp in surprise. The nearby storefront was destroyed, sending twisted metal and glass everywhere, and with a hollow slamming noise, Dubhe landed atop of the truck, angry gibberish escaping it in rapidly falling and rising tones.

“Gah! WHAT THE HELL?!”

“Shit- It’s Dubhe!” Yamato snarled, lowering his arms to glare up at the bizarre creature. Dammit! Couldn’t they just catch a break in  _peace_?! “Shijima! Floor it!”

Shijima obeyed – in an over the top panicked manner of course. Still in reverse (thankfully or he would’ve ran them over), Shijima slammed his foot down on the accelerator and shot backwards with a squeal of tires against tarmac. Dubhe was sent flying, landing heavily on the road before it floated back up, its noises sounding even more furious.

“Uh-oh,” Akie backed up a step. “It sees us. That’s not good.”

Understatement of the century.

The pink mass atop of the creature pulsated, doubling in size. Crackles of energy sparked, and demons appeared as well. A part of Yamato wished to simply throw himself on the ground and give up forever. Right out of the pan into the fire, hrhn? Well, Yamato had survived all the crap that had happened today, and no way was he going to be killed on the home stretch…!

“No, Dubhe’s summoning demons?” Nitta gasped. “And we can’t take the way back…what should we do?!”

“We fight it, obviously,” Yamato snapped, pulling out his phone and promptly summoning Tam Lin. The demon adopted a defensive posture before him immediately, holding its spear up. “I refuse to be killed here by such a ridiculous looking enemy.”

“Uhhh, fight  _that_  thing?” Akie asked dubiously. “I don’t think so. It looks really powerful.”

“I’m well aware. Care to suggest another obvious fact?”

“H-Hey,” Nitta interrupted Yamato quickly. “Look behind it. Can we escape it through there…?”

Behind Dubhe and the demons was a narrow alleyway. They could, possibly, escape – if they could slip past the angry creature and its summoned demons. Yamato thought the chances of fighting and winning, or fighting and escaping, were equally low, and simply shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s it!” Akie said enthusiastically, “That’s a great plan! Let’s do that!”

“Feh, fine. Let’s go!”

Dubhe spun wildly, and flames erupted almost immediately. They were small and weak in comparison to Tzitzimitl’s fireballs, and it was easily avoided by running and jumping away – unless you were slow to react like Akie, who frantically hopped on one leg, patting at the bottom of the other with his hand to pat out the small flames eating at his trousers.

“Ah, no, no, noooo! Not the suit…!” Akie was yelping. Yamato ignored him, keeping pace with Nitta who was half-running, half-limping as they skirted around Dubhe’s spinning form. Demons lunged at them, but Nitta’s Hairy Jack, and his Tam Lin, swatted them aside – the demons were refreshingly weak. Knockers and Kabuso, mostly.

They could actually escape.

Dubhe’s gibberish grew louder, and its pink form grew larger, but by then he, Nitta and Akie managed to circle around it completely, the only thing standing between them and freedom being a group of Kabuso. Nitta sent them scattering with a well-aimed Zio, bolts of electricity leaping upwards and making the air smell strongly of ozone.

“We’re almost there!” Akie’s voice behind them encouraged – and they were! Almost-!

There was a horrible, metallic noise, and all of them skidded to a halt when metal girders crashed down from above, blocking off their escape route entirely. Yamato barely held in the desire to scream in sheer frustration.

_WHAT GOD HAD HE PISSED OFF TO DESERVE THIS?!_

“No…!” Nitta gasped.

They spun around, their remaining demons (just the Hairy Jack, the Tam Lin, and Akie’s Itsunade) the only defence they had. Dubhe’s pink mass doubled in size one more, pulsating wildly. It was going to explode. Shit shit shit they were-!

“Oh, man!” Akie clutched at his hat with one hand as if it would give him strength. “This is bad! Really, really bad!”

“You think?!” Yamato snapped back at him, his voice a bit higher from fear. There were no more escape routes, unless they suddenly sprouted wings and flew away-!

The roar of the engine cut through Dubhe’s wild sounding noises, and they all looked up to see the glare of headlights as a truck drove over the old railroad tracks. No, was that…? It was!

It was Shijima!

“Yamato! Io! I’ve gotta do this!”

Shijima’s voice could barely be heard over the cacophony of noise from both the truck and the pink creature, but his intent was clear. The truck growling loudly before its tyres squealed, barrelling forwards- and flying  _off_  of the railway, right towards – Dubhe-!

What followed was a confusing jumble of noise and lights. The truck slammed right into Dubhe just as the pink mass began to glow – an explosion roared out, briefly deafening Yamato until all he could hear was a persistent ringing in his ears, his vision half-blinded by bright spots dancing in his vision. The concussion of the explosion had also sent them all sprawling, only their demons standing, and Yamato groggily pushed himself up to blink over where Dubhe had been.

“Ugh, what…?”

 Dubhe was slowly spinning, wobbling dangerously, the pink mass gone and the top of its multi-coloured, coned body charred and splintered. Weak noises garbled from its broken form, sounding pained. Yamato’s gaze drifted past it though, to where the burned out remains of the truck lay on its side, still smoking.

There was no way Shijima…could’ve survived…

“No…!” Nitta’s distraught voice brought him back, and Yamato hurriedly stood up to quickly grab her arm before she ran towards the truck.

“Stop! Dubhe’s still alive!”

“Oh, hey look…” Akie groaned behind them, sounding thoroughly winded, “I think he exploded or something.”

“Ugh, what is it with you and stating the obvious?” Yamato muttered, releasing Nitta and glaring uncertainly at the weakened Dubhe. “Anyway, this is our chance. Let’s try to defeat it.”

“Mm!” Nitta nodded, a sudden determination in her gaze. It took Yamato aback a little, “Y-Yes! We have to check on Daichi…!”

“Right,” Yamato flipped open his phone, glancing at Tam Lin and nodding. His demon blurred into motion, bolting towards the weakened Dubhe and thrusting its spear right into the broken cone body. The creature made a high pitched squealing noise, black energy splurting out of the wound Tam Lin inflicted – only for the squealing noise to rise into a shriek when bolts of ice slammed into it, sending it spinning wildly away.

“Hey! It’s stumbling a little. Everything’s comin’ up Joe!” Akie laughed. Yamato couldn’t help but laugh too as he cast Zan on the creature, riding high on the fact that this time  _they_  had the upper hand.  _They_  were the ones on the offensive, instead of defensive.  _They_  were the ones fighting something into a corner!

They were the ones who were  _winning_ …!

It ended with one final Zio from Nitta, Dubhe letting out a wailing noise before its form exploded into black energy, crackling away into non-existence. The battlefield rang with silence in the aftermath, broken only by the crackle of fire from the truck. All of them stood perfectly still, as if fearing for some other threat to rear its head, but…nothing. There was nothing. They had  _won_.

“We beat it…” Nitta gasped, her voice stunned as she pressed her hand against her side. “Yes! I think we won!”

“Well,” a familiar voice whistled, “Here we were, following a fleeing Dubhe, and instead we find this. Impressive.”

They all quickly turned. Behind them was Chief Kageyama and Makoto Sako, flanked by a large group of JP’s personnel. Ah…

“Whoa,” Akie looked understandably cautious, “What’s this?”

“Hm…” Chief Kageyama started towards them, one hand in his coat’s pocket as his blue eyes scanned their group. “Aren’t you missing someone?” His expression softened with sympathy, “Did he die?”

Nitta stiffened and looked over her shoulder at the truck. “Did he…? Is Daichi…dead?”

“Heeeeeeeey!”

Everyone looked upwards towards the railway bridge, and there, clinging to the very edge of it, legs rapidly wriggling in midair, was Daichi Shijima. That idiot…! Yamato wasn’t sure whether to laugh or glare at the comical sight of the boy clinging to the bridge. He made them think he had sacrificed himself…!

“Don’t write me off yet!” Shijima clawed at the edge of the bridge, trying and failing to pull himself up, “I’m still here!”

“Daichi!” Akie called, sounding bemused, “What’re you doing up there!?”

“I jumped out of the truck before it went over the edge, you idiot!” Shijima squawked, “I did it to save your lives!  Now help me get down! I can’t get myself up!”

Chief Kageyama laughed loudly, pressing a hand against his stomach as he leaned forwards slightly, his expression of shameless mirth. “Oh my god – Makoto. Go save the poor guy before he falls.”

“Uh-uh! No way! You’re gonna lock us up!” Shijima snapped. “I’ll just stay here in that case!”

“Pffft, where the hell did you get that idea?” Chief Kageyama snorted, straightening up as he pressed his hand against his mouth, muffling his laughter. “I want to keep you, actually! Strong, fearless people like you… you’ll serve better with me, right? Think about it! Free food and lodgings! Tempting, right?”

“What?” Yamato blurted, staring at the man in confusion.

“Hm? Ah, it’s like I said,” Chief Kageyama glanced at him with a cheeky grin, “I’ll give you sancturary tonight – as a thank you for  getting rid of that thorn in my side.”

“Sanctuary?”

“I’ll assign some JP’s guards to escort you home tomorrow morning,” Sako spoke up, “But for now, we can give you food and shelter.”

“Oh…!” Nitta’s voice was thoroughly relieved, “Thank you, Makoto!”

“What luck!” Akie grinned, “Good things happen to nice people after all!”

Yamato was still suspicious, but, the allure of having somewhere save to sleep, and something to eat… god, when was the last time he had some food and water? His stomach gave a quiet growl in hunger, and he coughed when Chief Kageyama’s grin widened. He had obviously heard it.

“…sounds reasonable…”

“Great! Now c’mon,” Chief Kageyama held a hand out in invitation, “Let’s get your friend, and go back.”  

Yamato ignored the hand and walked past the Chief without a backwards glance. “He isn’t my friend.”

“Hmm…sure,” the man’s tone was dubious, but Yamato didn’t look back at him. Today felt like it had taken a year to end, he just wanted to grab something to eat and sleep…hopefully nothing else would happen to snatch this stroke of luck from them.

Hopefully. 


End file.
